Unretouched: Beauty which is not Photoshopped

If I had a penny for every time we have been asked if an image is photoshopped, we would be rich. Photoshopped means having a photograph digitally altered, but the common mistake is to ignore that there are various level of “Photoshopped” work. Today we will dig into our recipe for digitally enhancing a photograph. Most importantly, today we will showcase “Unretouched” a set of images that have not been photoshopped in the slightest.
The photographs you can see in this post have been colour corrected, but they have not been retouched in photoshop. We did not correct anything that is normally photoshopped. This is natural beauty, 100% real.To understand if you’d like to see yourself without a single detail photoshopped, you may need to understand our philosophy in managing our digital enhancement process. Interested in knowing how we don’t make you thinner?

Photographs Photoshopped “the right way”

We don’t think there is a “right” and a “wrong” way of creating a photoshopped image. The use of the photo enhancement is not something new to the digital era, the airbrushing was a technique already used in the darkrooms. The real “photoshopped or not” dilemma should question the level of digital enhancement of an image.
In our book, women look beautiful as they are. Anna Magnani, a famous Italian actress of the ’50s once said to a makeup artist “Please don’t retouch my wrinkles. It took me so long to earn them.” We believe that beauty is in the small details that make every woman unique. Details, not imperfections!
To us, a well photoshopped image does not alter the person as she is. A well photoshopped photograph corrects few details that our advanced cameras are ruthless in capturing. A pimple or a mark in the skin left by tight clothes are not part of what a woman is, at least in our opinion. We tend to make the skin slightly gentler, without losing its qualities or pores, we alleviate some bags under the eyes and admittedly we fix some rebel hair that don’t want to comply.
Is that a photoshopped image? Yes, it is. Is that a heavily photoshopped image? Not at all, and you won’t find heavily photoshopped images here.

What about reshaping a body?

Images can be photoshopped so much and so easily, that changing the shape of a woman is one of the simplest things to do. In general we do not like a body reshape, that goes a little bit further than how much an image is photoshopped.
The world seems to be living in extremes, and nowadays every starlet like to be thinner even in their selfies. The amount of -sometimes badly done- reshaping has touched questionable levels.
So why, if everyone wants to see themselves thinner, we do not reshape a woman’s body? Because an excessively reshaped photograph does not last the challenge of time. It is a sweet lie that is quickly forgotten. Images which are photoshopped to the extreme may attract certain customers for a short period of time, but they do not retain their magic for long.
We use some minimal reshaping; however, we use it for those element of a photo which cannot be photographed right in camera. Your bra, that to give your breast the right support, will create some ripple on your skin close to it. Your knickers, that presses on your skin, creating the false feeling of an excessively curvy body. Those are the things we double check. We do it because if we could, we would have you wear bras and knickers a size or two larger, as models do. Yes, models wear thongs one or two sizes larger to avoid that effect, but certainly they do not wear the same underwear walking away from the shoot. They do not need those details photoshopped as the entire set is build upon them. For the rest of us, a certain degree of digital enhancement may be welcomed!

Can we live without photoshopped photographs?

If it was for me, I would remove the need of a photoshopped image. The big disclaimer is that I am a man and I am in love with reportage photography, in telling a real story, in entangling the viewer with emotions and not with perfection. “Imperfections” are the things that make us unique, and I like when people wants to be themselves.
Can we live without photoshopped photographs? I don’t think we can. There are details that we can correct and gently enhance only using post process. And if done in the right way, this is not necessarily bad.
Still, my goal is to take amazing images of unique women for who they are and for their beauty.

Would you be brave enough to refuse to have your photographs photoshopped?

Would you stand and say “No photoshopped photographs at all, please“?
You do not have to do it and, to say it all, few times I really question myself if we really need photoshop to change such small details. Truth is that as long as photoshop is done correctly, without changing what a woman is, then it is part of photography itself.

In the meantime look at these photographs and remember: a good preparation before the shoot and trust in good photographers will make miracles!

Like this:

Related

2 Comments

Leaving aside the pressure on women to appear ‘flawless’, I’m finding it very hard to get enthused about most photography I see at the moment because the techniques involved are somehow more prominent than the subject. Photoshop is fine when its use is transparent but when it’s the first thing that hits you when you view an image something is wrong.